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Pancake day is upon us once again. Here is a little test I did at the weekend where I discovered auto focus (only used as I need glasses but haven’t got them yet) is no good for pouring shots and sleet storms hamper the reshooting process when they make the daylight disappear. I will endeavour to reshoot this soon with the pancakes in focus and good syrup drippage action!

For anyone looking for an American pancake recipe I can recommend this Jamie Oliver one and as far as traditional recipes go I use this one

I know what you are thinking….quinoa and avocado have no place in a chocolate cake, but having tasted this moist gluten free chocolate cake on a shoot last year, I’m now a convert. I was lucky enough to tag along for a day during the shooting of Donal Skehan’s latest book Eat. Live. Go. and this was one of the many lovely recipes that day. It’s got a big chocolate hit without so much sugar. Although, I couldn’t find coconut sugar locally and didn’t have time to order it online so subbed in 180g light brown sugar instead.

Preheat the oven to 180C (160C fan) and grease and line a 20cm spring-form cake tin with parchment paper.

Place the quinoa, eggs, milk, butter and vanilla extract in a food processor and blitz until smooth. Add the coconut sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda and blitz again to combine.

Transfer the mixture to the prepared tin and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly before removing from the tin and setting on a wire rack to cool completely.

For the frosting, place the avocados, cocoa powder, espresso powder, maple syrup, vanilla extract and sea salt in a food processor and blitz until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Use a spatula to spread over the top of the cooled cake and dig in.

I have been rubbish these last few months and well and truly lost my mojo so haven’t been shooting much worth blogging. It hadn’t happened to me for ages and it wasn’t until a few weeks ago that I realised my mojo had gone on holiday without me. I would love to hear how people get themselves out of creative black holes!

Bread and butter pudding and custard is one of my favourite desserts from childhood. It always amazes me what is created out of such simple store cupboard ingredients. I replaced some of the milk with double cream to elevate this dish slightly but it tastes great with just milk too.

Butter a large shallow ovenproof pie dish Approx 1.75 lt capacity. Butter the bread slices and cut 4 slices in half on the diagonal. Arrange a layer of whole and half slices, butter side up, in the dish.

Sprinkle over a good grating of nutmeg and sultanas. Top with the remaining bread slices, then arrange the remaining sultanas over the bread, tucking a few in between the slices as well as leaving a few on top.

Whisk the caster sugar with the eggs, then add the milk, double cream and vanilla extract. Make sure everything is well combined, strain through a sieve and then pour this mixture over the bread and sultanas.

Leave the pudding to stand for around half an hour to allow the bread to soak up the custard. Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4. Dot the pudding with a few knobs of butter, then sprinkle over the demerara sugar.

Bake in the oven for 35–45 minutes, or until well set, golden-brown and lightly toasted in places. Eat hot or cold.

Can be reheated in the oven to retain its crispy bits. Set the oven to 160c. Cover with foil for 15 minutes and then cook uncovered for another 5-10 minutes

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas! I’m looking forward to tucking into this pudding later today.

My planned edible gift posts were sadly thwarted by the particularly nasty cold bug that’s been going round but I am finally starting to feel human again. Serves me right for leaving them to the week before Christmas!

I had whipped up these lower fat brownies as needed something sweet one afternoon without intending to blog them but they came out looking bloggable so here they – and my new slate tile – are in all their glory.

Taken from Cook Yourself Thin: Quick and Easy these fudgy brownies weigh in at 102 calories per brownie when cut into 16 squares and I also added a sprinkle of peanut butter chips as they need using up.

This cherry and almond cake is another one from my River Cottage Handbook No 8 – Cakes. The original recipe had a streusel topping but I didn’t have enough ground almonds so just sprinkled flaked almonds over the top which happened to visually look better than the original recipe as the cherries aren’t hidden. I also didn’t have fresh cherries but had a jar of morello cherries loitering at the back of the cupboard so drained and utilised these instead. Despite the cupboard raiding restraints and alterations it was a lovely moist cake and these are two of my favourite flavours. You could also use plums instead of cherries.

I have finally found some reasonably priced tile samples so should have some new background surfaces coming onto the blog as I play with different tiles.This is my faux marble one which isn’t bad but could do with a bit more veining maybe.

Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas Mark 4. Start by base lining and greasing a 20cm/8″ spring form cake tin.

For the cake, in a mixing bowl, using either a wooden spoon or hand-held electric whisk, beat the butter to a cream. Add the caster sugar and continue to beat until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, incorporating 1 tbsp of the flour with each, and beating until thoroughly combined before adding the next. Stir in the ground almonds and almond extract, if using. Sift in the remaining flour and fold in gently, using a large metal spoon.

Spoon the cake mixture into the prepared tin, smoothing it out evenly and gently with the back of the spoon. Lay the cherries over the top of the mixture. Sprinkle the streusel topping evenly over the cherries and then scatter the slivered almonds all over the top.

Bake in the oven for 45-50 minutes, until the almonds are lightly browned and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Leave for 10 minutes before releasing the tin and moving the cake to a wire rack to cool. This cake is delicious warm or cold, with custard (if serving warm) or clotted cream or Greek yoghurt. It will keep for up to 3 days in an airtight tin.

Apologies for not being around as often as I’d like. These fruit tartlets taken from the July issue of Waitrose Food magazine were made and shot some weeks ago but life seems so easily to get in the way of blogging these days. My weekends are peppered with DIY and littered with chores so the baking and shooting doesn’t always happen when I’d like it to. These tarts were delicious even if they did take me most of the day to make.